On Feb. 11, the Calgary Flames were 29-19-8, and sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference, the second wild card spot for the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But fast forward a month, and it's been a slow burn in Calgary, a 5-7-2 stretch played largely without goaltender Mike Smith (the Flames went 5-6-2 when Smith was out to injury), which has seen them slide down to 10th in the West. Smith returned on Sunday, and despite out-shooting the New York Islanders 56-26, the Flames lost again, falling 4-2 .

Calgary has 12 games left to salvage a playoff berth they have been in possession of most of the season. And with that kind of pressure, and the frustration of all these recent losses piling up, Calgary head coach Glen Gulutzan let it out during Flames practice on Monday.

Gulutzan put a halt to practice to rip into his players for what sounded like his displeasure with their puck decisions.

"I'm not saying don't f-ing make a play; I'm not saying that," Gulutzan said. " ... That makes a difference between who are the f-ing great players, who's the f-ing good players, who's the f-ing grind players, which players stay in the league ... who distinguishes the best of what the situation calls for."

The Flames have struggled to score in some of their recent losses, averaging 1.89 goals for in games they have lost over this recent stretch.

After practice, Gulutzan was asked if his message was similar to that of goaltender Mike Smith, who recently called out the Flames for a lack of effort to start games.

"Our mentality, and just a little tweak in our mentality of how we want to approach games, and knowing who we are, and what we need to do to be successful," Gulutzan said. "We've got a good idea with that. We do a better job it seems away than (in Calgary), but just getting back to that mentality.

"We're looking at how we can be better. We talked to our group this morning here. We're trying to climb a mountain, we only have to take what we need with us because we're getting close to the top, so we have to drop what we don't need, and make sure we're taking the essentials."

"We're trying to climb a mountain here. We only have to take what we need with us because we're getting close to the top," pic.twitter.com/TiHctPFRTK

Gulutzan did though disagree when asked specifically about how much he could prepare his team for the start of a game as a coach, versus how much the players have to execute. Calgary fell behind 2-0 on Sunday 2:32 into their loss against the Islanders.

"The first five minutes we didn't have a real good direct mentality, but we had the best chance of the game in the first two, three minutes," Gulutzan said. "I'm not going to really dwell on the start of the game. We're dwelling on the mentality of the game to be a little bit more direct and try to get people's ears pinned back early rather than be a little bit more skill-based in the beginning."

That echoed in part what Gulutzan said during practice, with respect to puck decisions and puck management.

"You guys are killing me with these questions because if their shot doesn't go in and [Matthew Tkachuk] scores we're talking about a great start, right?" Gulutzan said. "So you're just kind of beating a horse over and over for me."

This isn't the first time this season Gulutzan has made headlines for ripping into players during a team practice. During a practice that followed a 4-3 win against the Los Angeles Kings, Gulutzan threw his stick into an empty part of the stands , later saying he didn't like the way his team started the game against Los Angeles and sensed complacency building during practice.

Calgary can quickly reverse its fortunes with a little help, though. With both the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings playing Monday, and the Colorado Avalanche playing Tuesday, if all three of those teams lose, and the Flames win in any fashion against the Oilers on Tuesday, Calgary would move back into a tie for the second wild card spot and third in the Pacific Division.